Serbian President Boris Tadic said that Serbia today is stronger than any criminal structure, but that its institutional capacity for efficiently combating organized crime was not fully mobilized until this year.

"In Serbia today, all prominent mafia bosses against whom criminal proceedings have been completed are in jail. Court proceedings are starting against several more people involved in organized crime, and they will end up in prison sooner or later, because the state is more powerful than any criminal structure," Tadic said.

Opening a ministerial conference on strengthening regional and transnational cooperation as a precondition for the successful fight against organized crime in South Eastern Europe, the Serbian president said that Serbia will remain a regional leader in the fight against crime.

"Serbia will not desist from combating organized crime, this country is an enemy to organized crime and we will continue to be the firing pin in this fight - this will be one of our key goals," Tadic pointed out.

According to Tadic, it was only in 2010 that the country reached the full institutional capacity and the full political commitment needed to fight organized crime, because "organized crime no longer has access to political parties."

The Serbian president assessed that the European Union does not fully realize the importance of regional cooperation in the Western Balkans in the fight against crime, and that its assistance to the region in this area is insufficient.